Ubuntu One, FOSS nil

"The Cloud" – currently one of the tech industry's hottest buzzwords – just got a new competitor to add to the lineup: Ubuntu One. All that can be seen right now in the public beta of this file synchronisation and sharing service is the similarities it has with Dropbox.

For those that haven't heard of it, Dropbox is an application for Windows, Mac and Linux that connects you to a folder in the cloud by mounting it as a network drive. This folder is split into public and private areas, allowing users the option of only synchronising data securely between their own machines, or sharing files with other people.

Ubuntu One

Ubuntu One takes advantage of the Ubuntu brand name so that it directly targets the community of developers and users behind the product. The pictorial schematic for how the current release works has been bouncing around the blogosphere, coupled with examples of the good humour that the developers continue to bring to their code.

Open source software (OSS) companies release products and services by harnessing a community of developers, much like a beekeeper uses a hive to make honey. Money is made by selling the complete product, and support for it, to customers (often businesses) and OEM's (manufacturers). Ubuntu One is important for the company behind Ubuntu, Canonical, as it provides a new source of revenue.

Just as with Dropbox, a freemium pricing plan will offer users 2GB of free storage plus the option to pay for larger amounts should they need it. Hopefully Ubuntu One prices are not yet set in stone and more options will emerge that discount for larger needs or longer-term use, or at least that are more competitive than the current 10GB for $10/month. This price is higher than Dropbox's offer of $9.99/month for up to 50GB, but (perhaps surprisingly) that's not the main source of the Ubuntu community's protest so far.

Canonical are choosing to keep their lips sealed over how Ubuntu One's storage in the cloud functions, withholding parts of the source code as proprietary. By using the name "Ubuntu" alongside a closed source service deployment, many in the community feel that the Ubuntu philosophy has been broken. David Futcher explained how there will always be a conflict between making money and building a community of freedom-loving software enthusiasts if the same brand name is given to both FOSS (free open source software) and proprietary software.

Launchpad, the software wiki and bug tracker used for Ubuntu and Ubuntu One, has seen huge activity around a bug report titled – "Ubuntu One" name creates confusion. The status of this bug report has shifted from "New" to "Won't Fix", and back again, at least twice. Canonical own the trademark on "Ubuntu" and are legally entitled to use it as they wish, but operating in an environment that relies so heavily on the community of volunteers means there's a great incentive to be consistent with the underlying philosophy. Ultimately whether or not the name of this product does change to subdue the protest, it may not matter as it could be argued that the damage has already been done.

Personally, I see Ubuntu One's release as being, in part, a great cause for celebration. It might only be a "Dropbox clone" at the moment, but I've been picking up on rumours surrounding the forthcoming announcements to be made at the Ubuntu Developers Summit, indicating FAR grander plans in the pipeline. It will play host to a collection of online services aimed at Ubuntu users, allowing synchronisation of user preferences, web browser bookmarks and plugins, and installed software configurations across machines, like roaming profiles with bells. By having a cloud that users can sync their data with, Ubuntu can be the first distribution of Linux to provide offerings like Apple's MobileMe and Microsoft's Live Mesh.

Live Mesh

The rumours have included a mention of Canonical working with Funambol, an American software corporation that specialises in mobile data synchronisation. Let's think about the implications of this rumour being true. MobileMe users have to wait for Apple's developers to release new features, and even then, the portability of their data is limited to devices that Apple chooses to support. The same is true for Microsoft's Live Mesh. Ubuntu One's client software is licensed under GPLv3 and the server side has an API. The end product will be shaped by the needs of the community, but more importantly the licensing means developers from other software backgrounds can join in.

MobileMe

Ubuntu One can accelerate the emergence of open standards for data portability and synchronisation: cross platform, to and from any device. Excellent. Now that Ubuntu are playing catch-up with their proprietary software competitors, whether you're running Windows, Mac or Linux, and regardless of which mobile device you prefer to use, you could soon have access to a storage cloud that can be a hub for synchronising all your data.